Goody's Swim Log - The "natural" swimmer

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Last training swim before Tahoe. There was a full moon, actually blue moon tonight and perfectly clear skies. Josh suggested we get people together for a night swim starting at 2200. Great idea.
I arrived early so I could swim as the sun went down. It was magnificent seeing the sunlight fade and the moon rise. Big and beautiful and BRIGHT!
I finished the first mile and headed in. There was a pretty good crowd at the boat ramp. A lot of people came out to take advantage of this opportunity. It was great seeing so many people. We even had Josh on a SUP and Chad's son in a kayak for support. Everyone had a chemlight and we took some pics. I gave a quick safety briefing and off we went. It was really fun and I was able to see people I have not seen in a long time.
I put little effort in my stroke for the 2nd mile. I was mainly focused on watching everyone else to make sure no one wandered off or needed help.
On the way back, I noticed someone swimming off course and angling toward land. I caught up to the person and redirected them. I then realized they were the last swimmer so I slowed down and used myself as a guide for them to sight on all the way to the finish.
It was a huge success and everyone seemed to have a great time. I sure did!

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Alarm went off at 0400...at least I think it did. I woke up at 0600 and I guess I never heard it go off. That or my mind had a revolution and decided to let me sleep. I'm sure my brain was thinking, "One more 0300 or 0400 wake up..HELL NO!"
I decided to go to the KEARNS pool and just do easy stroke work.
500 WU
500 swim
5 x 100 with snorkel
500 kick with fins
20 x 50 on the :60
2 x 500 swim - the 2nd 500 I tossed a feed in the middle of the lane and about halfway through the 500 I did a feed in the middle of the lane. I looked funny but it was good practice.
5 x 100 - The bottle was empty but I did a practice feed every time I passed the bottle.
5 x 100 with fins. Odds was kick and even was swim.

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Met with Chad and Gordon at 0400 this morning. I think the water is getting cooler by the day. Gordon said it read 66 and the air temp was 50! Good times. It was extremely clear and we all got going instead of standing around. We picked a route and Gordon and I were together the whole time. Although he doesn't admit it, Chad tends to swim right. He gradually kept getting farther and farther from us. Gordon and I soon lost sight of him and we swam to where we thought we were supposed to meet. Gordon thought he saw him swimming closer to the dam so we went after him. We got to the dam and we were alone. I then saw a faint red glow of his chemlight following the dam. Gords saw it too and off we went. We swam to the very end of the dam and Gordon pops up and says, "I see him, he's RIGHT THERE!" We swam there and I guess Gords was seeing a ghost. Chad had my feed and I needed to head back in. I knew I would start getting tired quick.
Showed Gordon our heading and off we went. The lake felt great the cold air had zero affect on me.
We got to the boat ramp and the sun was just up enough we could see the lake. We kept looking around trying to see Chad. It was useless. We were both a little concerned. We got back to our cars and got change but neither one of us was going to leave until Chad was accounted for. NEVER LEAVE A MAN BEHIND! :P
As we went to find him, there he was walking up the ramp to us. We had a good laugh about it.
I became tired halfway back because I had not had anything to drink in over an hour. I could feel myself slowing down a bit.
Periodically I would roll over on my back and simulate taking a feed from the boat. I really want to get my liquid feeds down to under 10 seconds.
The great thing was that when we finished, I thought we had done just over 2 miles. Gordon said his watch read we had gone just under 3! Woo-hoo I swam to the green buoy and back. That put us both right over the 3 mile mark.
I'm taking tomorrow off then I plan on doing 3 on Thu and 2 on Fri. That will put me at 10 for the week.

Monday, July 27, 2015

I have been traveling the past few days then unpacking then unwinding. I am slowly starting to reverse my sleep schedule so that meant I went to bed around midnight last night. I still got up at 0420 to swim.
I could not have been more unmotivated to swim today. The nice thing was that the water temp has dropped some at JN because it rained and was cooler all last week when I was gone. It was nice being in water that took me longer than .5 seconds to adjust too.
I just did 2 miles today. I felt terrible the first mile and whenever I burped, I could taste dinner from last night. Not that pleasant. The 2nd mile was better and I felt better. I called it good after 2 miles and practices some feeds.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Today I was able to do a swim I have wanted to do for several years. Each year when we drive down to the Outer Banks, we cross over the Wright Memorial Bridge. It is just under 3 miles long and I've always wanted to swim from one side to another. I planned the logistics a few weeks ago and acquired all the permission needed.
Up at 0545 with Patricia. Our 24 hour rental kayak was already loaded on my sisters van and we were off. On the way, I called both the Currituck County and Dare County non-emergency numbers to tell them what I was planning on doing. I also received clearance from the Coast Guard. It was the same Officer of the Day so he was cool about whatever I wanted to do. The biggest reason for the calls was so that no one will see a swimmer in the middle of the Sound and call the authorities saying a swimmer is in distress.
We drove over to the west end. The wind was blowing west to east so we might as well make it easier. We parked in the lot of an abandoned restaurant. The docks in the back were missing half the planks so walking across with the kayak was an adventure. Patricia was not very happy but was a great sport. We dropped the kayak in then Patricia carefully sat on top. I walked to the end and had Patricia stick the paddle in to see how deep the water was. She could not touch the bottom so that was good. I lowered myself in nice and slow. I was unable to touch the bottom.

Let the adventure BEGIN

The swim was on! There is a row of power lines that runs parallel to the bridge. We went right between them. The wind was going pretty strong and the current was with us. Patricia was having to paddle carefully so she did not get slammed into me constantly. I just relaxed and enjoyed the sunrise.
The time ticked along and the farther we went, the choppier the water became. Patricia was soon feeling "not so great" and was grateful she had not eaten any solids before the start.
Soon enough, we were almost at the end. It was a possibility to do an out and back but that was out of the question. Patricia called ahead for a ride from my brother back to the van. I swam under the bridge and kept stopping to ask Patricia to take pictures. I did have my GoPro and I will load those pictures later.

Going under

Just a cool shot!

Ladies!?!?

When we hit the shore, Patricia and I had to drag the kayak out and carry it a few hundred yards just outside of someones farm house. As I waited for Patricia to come back with the van, I just sat on the side of the highway in my speedo inside the kayak....sexy as hell!!!
I had a great time and was glad I did the swim. Another adventure swim to check off. I need to keep looking around this place each year for more bridges to swim parallel to.
I am grateful I was able to share this adventure with my wife.

Monday, July 20, 2015

Back to the Sound today. I had some errands to run. I am doing a SCUBA dive Thursday and needed to go to the shop to get fitted for my gear. Once I was done, I headed to the Sound and went in. Nice little beach entry next to the Aquarium in Manteo. Water was hot and the sun was beating down pretty good. I headed south and counted out 1600 strokes. This is usually a mile for me on calm conditions. I stopped and looked around and noticed I was WELL past a mile from where I started. The current did not feel strong when I got in and must have picked up after I had been in awhile. I took a feed and started to head back. 400 strokes later I realized I have hardly made any progress back. I also noticed I was no longer able to touch the bottom. THEN I noticed I was being pushed out into the middle of the Sound with a good current pushing me. Not good. I put my head down and cranked it for several hundred more strokes. I looked up and noticed I had made progress but not much. If I swam my regular pace, I would either swim with 0 progress or even get pushed back some. I had to swim in a "Z" style pattern for awhile to make progress. It worked but it wore me out. When I was able to touch the bottom again, I took my last feed and could feel the water pushing against me the way I was heading. I knew it was going to be a LONG swim back. Plus the sun was sucking the life out of me. I was tired.
I bore down and counted out strokes by 200 then would make a quick stand up stop and see if I needed to make any adjustments. Repeat, repeat all the way in. When I finished, I felt like I had done a really hard workout. My arms were sore, my shoulders ached, and my energy was GONE.
I kept thinking, quality over quantity. I only wanted 2 miles!
I got back and did a map my run measurement of my swim and realized did just around 3 miles instead of 2. By stroke count, it was more like 5! :P
Had a good time in the end but I did stop in the first 7-11 on the way back for some chocolate milk.

Easy ocean swim today. I was pretty sure I could remember where the 1 mile turnaround house was when heading north so I went for it. Nothing too strenuous. Just nice smooth strokes. It did cross my mind that if I were to be attacked by a shark, this would be the opportune time!
I got to where I thought the one mile turn around was and kept thinking, "Maybe a little more". I repeated this process several times until I was sure that I had passed one mile a long time ago. Better over than under!
Headed back and just enjoyed being swimming in the open ocean.

Goals for this year

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About Me

I've been swimming since I could walk but never took it seriously until I was in the Army. I have done over 30 triathlons of various distances including the Ironman in 1998. I've always found swimming to be my favorite activity and decided to focus on distance swimming from now on.